American Torture

Blind fear drove the US descent from beacon of liberty to
apologist for torture.

Image of prisoner at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, May, 2004.Photo: AP

Author

Michael Otterman

Genre

Society/Politics

Publisher

Melbourne University Press

Pages

285

RRP

$32.95

As with most things in life, knowing the problem isn't
enough. We also have to understand its origins. That's what this
book does well. Its strength is its methodical presentation of
facts, many of them little known, to build a fresh and informative
analysis of the psycho- logy behind President George W. Bush's
claim that the United States's torture techniques are an "alternate
set of procedures", vital tools needed "to protect the American
people and our allies".

Michael Otterman, an American journalist and documentary
filmmaker, begins his history of torture with the early years of
the Cold War when it was believed that communist governments had
learned how to control the mind and turn people into human robots.
In 1951, when an American journalist was arrested in
Czechoslovakia, he very quickly "confessed" to hostile activities
and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

There had already been a number of such incidents, and when The
New York Times editorial- ised on how the US could no longer
helplessly accept such barbarity, it nevertheless issued a salutary
warning. "We must be careful," it said, "not to commit the same
type of judicial iniquity of which we accuse the Reds. To descend
into their mire would be to lose the ideals for which we
strive."

However, president Dwight Eisenhower appointed a secret panel
which concluded: "It is now clear that we are facing an implacable
enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means
and at whatever cost. There are no rules in such a game ... If the
US is to survive, longstanding American concepts of 'fair play'
must be reconsidered." Sound familiar?

Part of the human experimentation that the Nazis were involved
in was interrogation-related. The US Navy knew this and in 1945
recruited Dr Kurt Plotner, who had supervised human experimentation
at Dachau, to continue his interrogation research.

A few years later, the navy's work had expanded to embrace the
search for a fail-safe "truth drug". The medical director of that
program acknowledged it was unethical, but said "we felt we had to
do it forthe good of the country".

Then the CIA got into the act and it wasn't long before this
attitude trickled down to agents in the field. Otterman reports
that one agency official recalled: "What you were made to feel was
that the country was in desperate peril and we had to do whatever
it took to save it."

The US Air Force's contribution came through funding a medical
study that built on Soviet and Chinese torture techniques. This led
to the discovery of the DDD method - debility, dependency and dread
- that revolved around the victim's perpetual fear of death, pain,
deformity or permanent disability.

This new technique shifted the CIA away from its fascination
with drugs. Comprehensive interrogation and torture manuals grew
out of this and were widely used.

But the most significant channel for American torture training
came with the CIA's notorious Phoenix Program, begun in 1965 in
Vietnam. Unlike standard military operations, Phoenix aimed at
eliminating Vietcong civilian infrastructure and hence targeted
citizens rather than soldiers. The theory was that it would give
back to the Vietcong what they dealt out - assassination and
butchery.

Much of what was learnt in Viet- nam was to be applied later in
Latin America. That in turn led to media exposure and a degree of
reform. US military field manuals eventually carried the following
caveat, which acknowledged reality but did little to enforce it:
"Use of torture and other illegal methods is a poor technique that
yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection
efforts, and can induce the source to say what he thinks the
interrogator wants to hear. Revelation of use of torture by US
personnel will bring discredit upon the US and its armed forces
while undermining domestic and international support for the war
effort."

Although the ideological driver behind the development of
American torture died with the Soviet empire, the DDD paradigm
survived. Otterman shows how the road to Abu Ghraib and beyond was
already defined and merely awaited the impetus of the September 11,
2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The author quotes Richard Clark, the Bush Administration's
erstwhile counter-terrorism chief, who reported that in the evening
after the attacks, the President gathered his top staff in his
White House operations bunker and told them: "Everything is
available for the pursuit of this war. Any barriers in your way,
they're gone ... I don't care what the international lawyers say,
we are going to kick some ass."

Michael Otterman's book makes you think long and hard not only
about human nature, but also about what the long haul of
civilisation has brought us. The irony is that one of modern
history's outstanding democracies is peeling back those
achievements like the skin of an orange.

Fortunately, many decent Americans are fighting back.

Reviewer Warren Reed was an officer with the
Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

SPONSORED LINKS

American TortureSociety/PoliticsMichael OttermanMelbourne University Press200728532.9520084191175971328985-smh.com.auhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/american-torture/2007/04/13/1175971328985.htmlsmh.com.auSydney Morning Herald2007-04-14American TortureWarren Reed, reviewer<p>Blind fear drove the US descent from beacon of liberty to
apologist for torture.</p>EntertainmentBooksMagpieBooksReviewshttp://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/04/13/Abu_070412122421699_wideweb__300x375.jpg